Freezing rain to make for messy Friday afternoon commute

The roller coaster ride that has been winter continues in Nova Scotia.

Despite the warm temperatures and some daily records being broken on Thursday, there's an icy mess on the way for Friday.

Freezing rain warnings are in effect for much of Nova Scotia, with Environment and Climate Change Canada warning of an extended period of icing throughout the day on Friday. 

Friday will start mild across most of the province with periods of rain and drizzle rolling in throughout the morning.

Areas further north including Colchester, Cumberland, the Northumberland shore and Cape Breton look set to see an icy mix of flurries, ice pellets and freezing rain from the get-go.

As we move into the afternoon, our winds will shift to northerly and temperatures will start to fall across the province.

The result will be a period of three to six hours of freezing rain throughout the afternoon and during the evening commute home across Nova Scotia.

The exact timing will be key — as of now, it appears the freezing rain will be mainly across northern and central areas in the late morning and afternoon hours.

Temperatures then look set to drop with the freezing rain moving into the Atlantic coast and Halifax areas through the early evening hours.

We'll then see the freezing rain mixing to ice pellets and then snow, which will taper to flurries overnight.

The flurries will linger into early Saturday before clearing, with a calm Saturday afternoon and a nice Sunday on the way.

Another round of mild temperatures and rain looks set for Monday into Tuesday.